1. Field
The subject invention is in the field of radio telephone and cellular telephone communication equipment designed to allow essentially hands free operation of the telephone, particularly in a vehicle. More specifically, it is in the field of apparatus used to position a microphone in the vicinity of a user's mouth when necessary and to stow the microphone and its support when the microphone is not needed.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,250 shows prior art in this specific field. The mechanism of '250 mounts above the vehicle door adjacent to the intended user of the mechanism and a microphone is carried on the end of a boom which is extensible/retractable and angularly adjustable. Also, there is a speaker in the mechanism. The extension and angular adjustment of the boom are done manually and retraction occurs when a knob that controls the volume of the speaker is pressed. The mechanism of this microphone support is considered to be quite complex and therefore expensive. Also, the manual adjustment detracts from the goal of hands off operation. If this microphone support is used with a cellular telephone, it would be necessary to manually operate the telephone which would require using both hands unless the telephone is mounted in a suitable bracket. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,060,697 and 4,151,468 show brackets used in vehicles to hold microphones and these brackets could be used to hold a cellular telephone. The boom is made of springy, non-electrically conductive material and has an arcuate cross section shape similar to that used in extensible-retractable tape measures. This shape allows the extended portion of the boom to be straight and allows the boom to wrap around guides, pulleys, etc., for storage upon retraction. Conductors embedded in the boom connect the microphone electrically into the communication system.
There is commercially available prior art pertinent to the subject invention, comprising a cellular phone having a jack into which a microphone and/or headphones can be plugged. Use of such a microphone and headphones would contribute significantly to hands free operation of a cellular telephone. However, it would be inconvenient to put the headphones on and off each time a call was made or received.
Another prior art technique for providing relatively hands free operation of radio or cellular telephone communication in a vehicle is to use speakers and/or microphones and audio volume levels which do not require the microphone to be near a user's mouth or speakers near the user's ears. However, in such a situation audio fidelity would be low and interference from noises in the environment would be high.
In view of the discussed prior art the primary objective of the subject invention is to provide equipment which allows essentially hands free and high fidelity cellular telephone usage in a vehicle, requiring no manual extension, retraction or positioning of a microphone or donning and removing a headset. Other objectives that the equipment be relatively simple, reliable and inexpensive.